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Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Why Activism Matters

Over
the past few days, the blogging world has been very active with the Josh Duggar
and Karen Root Hinkley stories.For
those of us who have been impacted either by spiritual abuse and/or interaction
with a pedophile, these “stories” are felt deeply and our anger is rooted in
the trauma we have experienced and that we see others experiencing.It is a deeply felt pain of identification
that time and distance do not heal.We
are angry at the injustice, ignorance and our sense of impotence in the face of
such evil.It gets exhausting—anger may
be an empowering emotion but it also becomes exhausting, especially when it
seems that real change is elusive.

Sometimes
it feels like it would be easier to just give up, bury our heads in the sand
and sing a happy song.But our anger and
grief matter.They matter a great deal
and we cannot afford to be silenced on this critical issue.It may be uncomfortable to be angry and to
fully identify with the pain of others, but it is the catalyst for creating the
change we want to see.And it is critically
important that change come.

Men
and women who stood against the injustices, excesses and abuses of organized
religion, social norms and punitive laws made change through their
activism.They got angry and decided to
do something about it.Reformers and
change agents risked personal safety, reputation and anonymity in order to draw
attention to a problem and to mobilize public support for change.None of the major battles of reformation
within organized religion and society were undertaken passively—they resulted
from a burning anger at injustice and a commitment to do something to force
change.

Our
anger and subsequent activism matter; they matter a great deal.Organized religion must change its approach
to women and children and it must change its perspective on pedophiles. And we
must channel our anger into positive action until change comes.Our activism matters because:

Our children matter!They deserve to grow up in a community where
predatory behavior is not tolerated.Childhood sexual abuse has been termed a “soul slayer.”It destroys a child’s sense of worth, value
and spiritual connection with God.It is
not innocent or harmless!If we allow
the severity of individual acts to be judged on the basis of whether they
occurred over or under clothing, penetration was achieved or not, or any other
attempt to minimize the impact on a child’s emotional and spiritual health, we
are culpable as well!

Perpetrators are incredibly skilled at deception
and manipulation.Pedophilia is not
something that can be prayed away; it requires years of intensive therapy with
individuals specifically trained to deal with sexual orientation/addiction
issues. And even under the best of circumstances, it is incredibly resistant to
change.Church leadership who think they
can control, contain or manage a pedophile intentionally places the children in
the congregation at risk.And the church
leadership must be held accountable, by their congregants and by the courts.

It is time for the needs of victims to be
prioritized without question.We can
quibble about theological differences of opinion regarding gender roles,
submission in marriage, the role of women in the church, recognizing that theologians may legitimately
differ on what Scripture teaches with regards to these sensitive topics.However, we must no longer tolerate further
abuse or insensitivity towards those who have been victimized.And we certainly must not remain silent when
we see instances where the needs of the perpetrator are prioritized over those
of the victim.Victim-blaming must stop
and we must not stay silent when we see it occurring.

The
greatest tragedy that could possibly come from these two horrific stories (and
all the other untold ones we have yet to hear about) would be if we allow
ourselves to forget, to become distracted and to turn from the battle that we
now see clearly.The time for change has come.If you and I do not take
up the challenge, who will? If not now, then when? If not us, then who?